Data-Driven Decision- Making: The Science Behind Bluum’s Success
In an era when educational policy can be driven more by ideology than evidence, Bluum’s decade of success has been built on a foundation of rigorous data analysis. From demographic studies to parent surveys to academic outcome tracking, the organization has consistently let information guide its strategy. This practice has been central to its effectiveness.
“Bluum generally uses data universally. They don’t open schools in places where there’s not a demand, where population is not growing, where there’s not a populational kind of justification,” said Steve Farkas, a veteran New York-based education researcher who has conducted numerous public survey studies for Bluum, JKAF and the Idaho Education News. “They already know what the difficulties are in rural schools.”
This data-driven approach pervades everything Bluum does, from determining where new schools should be located to assessing how existing schools are performing. The organization has cultivated relationships with national researchers and data experts, commissioning studies that inform both their own work and the broader educational landscape in Idaho.
Mapping community needs
In recent years, Bluum has partnered with Denver-based education consultant Brian Eschbacher, who has conducted a comprehensive, annual landscape analysis of Idaho’s educational demographics. This analysis, which examined population growth, school enrollment patterns, and academic quality across the state, has helped identify areas with the greatest need for additional high-quality school options.
Eschbacher produced similar annual studies in his previous works as executive director of planning and enrollment for the 90,000-student Denver Public Schools.
“The reports are intended to point operators in the right direction of where to go to open a new school and give them that kind of quantitative fact-based side of it,” Eschbacher said. “Then they have to layer on the qualitative, family and community engagement side of it. if you have that kind of art and science and you put it together, I think you probably have something pretty good to work from.”
The detailed mapping exercise revealed patterns that might not otherwise have been apparent, such as the rapid population growth west of Boise in the Kuna community, where developers planned to build 11,000 single-family homes over the next decade.
Using this data, Bluum began working with developers to secure land for future school sites, timing new school openings to coincide with population growth. This creates what Eschbacher called a “flywheel” effect, where developers dedicate land for schools, Bluum helps coordinate the timing and authorization, and the community benefits from planned school development that keeps pace with housing growth.
This proactive approach stood in stark contrast to the challenges faced by traditional school districts, which Eschbacher noted often struggle to pass bonds for new facilities, especially in a fiscally conservative state like Idaho.
[Bluum] has cultivated relationships with national researchers and data experts, commissioning studies that inform both their own work and the broader educational landscape in Idaho.
Listening to community voices
Beyond quantitative studies, Bluum has invested in qualitative research to understand the communities it serves. Farkas has conducted numerous focus groups with parents, teachers, and community members across Idaho, helping Bluum understand nuances that numbers alone couldn’t capture.
Particularly notable was work with Hispanic families, a growing demographic in Idaho that had often been overlooked in educational planning.
“Very little was known about them in terms of their attitudes. They’re not like New York City Hispanics or Hispanics in California. They’re very different,” Farkas said. “Hearing the voices of these parents and what their goals were for their kids was important to Bluum.”
These focus groups revealed that Hispanic parents, like other parents in Idaho, wanted their children to succeed academically, but they also placed particular emphasis on trade education and maintaining Spanish language skills.
“These focus groups opened up Bluum to those voices in a way no other organization in Idaho had attempted,” Farkas said. Hispanics now comprise 13 percent of Idaho’s population, and 18 percent of public-school children in the state are Hispanic. “But no one talked to them, and Bluum did, through us. And that was meaningful.”
This research helped Bluum recognize opportunities to support educational models that would resonate with Hispanic families, such as the career-technical Elevate Academies, which proved particularly popular in focus groups.
Evaluating school performance
Perhaps most importantly, Bluum’s data approach extends to evaluating the schools it supports. The organization has built evaluation components into its federal Charter School Program (CSP) grant, collecting both hard performance data and perceptual data from teachers, parents, and school leaders.
“As the schools were opening, we conducted, in the first CSP grant, a series of focus groups with the teachers and the parents from that school, as well as interviews with the school leaders. And then a couple of years later, we did a follow-up survey,” Farkas said.
These evaluations served multiple purposes. They kept communities engaged and demonstrated that Bluum was listening to concerns. They provided valuable feedback to school leaders about areas for improvement. And they generated evidence for external evaluators about the effectiveness of the schools Bluum supported.
“In a couple of schools, we saw that leadership grade ratings had gone down or were low compared to other schools,” Farkas said. “Terry probably knew these things already, but confirming it allowed them to work on changes where they needed to be made.”
A collaborative approach to data
What distinguishes Bluum’s data approach, according to Eschbacher and Farkas, is how the organization shares information rather than hoarding it. Eschbacher noted that unlike some similar organizations in other states, Bluum actively works to get data into the hands of school operators and community members.
“One of the things that they did really well was try to socialize it as much as possible,” Eschbacher said. “They connected me with multiple charter leaders before I even started, to say, ‘Look, we want you to get to know them. Hear from them what’s on their mind. Hear from them what they see on the ground.’”
This approach reflects Bluum’s belief that better information leads to better decisions, and that the collective wisdom of educators, families, and communities is essential to creating successful schools.
“They didn’t need to become experts in all these census population details,” Eschbacher said. “It’s getting the information out to school operators so they could ask questions and process it.”
Bluum has also produced data-rich reports as a service to public educators and policymakers across the state. Education Secretary Critchfield said she relies regularly on Bluum’s Idaho Education by the Numbers. “I think this is one of the most powerful pieces of information around education in the state,” Critchfield said. “I carry this around when I’m asked to go and speak. They do a great job explaining the state’s educational landscape.”
The impact of data-driven decisions
The results of this data-driven approach speak for themselves. Bluum-supported schools have consistently opened in areas where they were needed, served the populations they intended to serve, and performed at high levels academically.
“Bluum has been a lot more successful than other nonprofits in affecting the education landscape, “ Farkas said. “If you do a state-by-state comparison across the country, I don’t think you’d find an organization that has been as successful as Bluum.”
Farkas and Eschbacher attributed this success in part to the organization’s commitment to letting evidence, rather than ideology, guide its decision-making. By asking the right questions and seeking honest answers, whether from demographic analyses, academic assessments, or community feedback, Bluum has built a model that continues to demonstrate the power of data in educational improvement.
“You’ve got to have the kind of energy Terry and his team have,” Farkas said. “They wake up, get to work right away, and they don’t stop. They fail now and then, get knocked down, get right back up again and keep going. That’s what it takes.”
